1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation control device and an operation control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the related art, when equipment is remotely operated, there has been used a remote controller using infrared rays or a radio frequency (RF) signal or a pointing device such as a mouse, a joystick, and a trackball. For example, in the operation of a television, a remote controller is generally used, and, for example, the channel, the sound volume, the hue, the density, and the contrast of the television can be operated. In light of many objects to be controlled, the future diversification of the broadcast service, and a conversion of a television to PC, the operation of the television is expected to be more complicated. Consequently, it is considered that convenience for users is reduced, such as the number of operation keys of a remote controller is increased, the functions are complicated, and the remote controller is increased in size.
In order to solve the above issue, an input device as operation means of equipment has been recently disclosed (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-324181). A user remotely operates the input device by his fingers to directly input information to the input device without using a device such as a remote controller. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, when an input device 10 is used, a user P moves a finger F in front of a display screen 28 of a television receiver 26, whereby information can be input to the input device 10. The input device 10 detects the position of the finger F by means of a spatial position detector 22 such as a stereo camera. A control part 24 then displays a cursor on a two-dimensional coordinate of the display screen corresponding to the position detected by the spatial position detector 22. Moreover, the control part 24 moves the cursor in response to the movement of the finger F. When the user P moves the finger F to thereby move the cursor, and, thus, to select an execution button displayed on the display screen 28, the operation related to the execution button is performed by the control part 24.